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  United Nations


A/54/546 



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Secretary-General

Distr: General
12 November 1999
Original: English

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Fifty-fourth session
Agenda item 34

United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations: Report of the Secretary-General

1. The General Assembly, by its resolution 53/22, decided to proclaim the year 2001 as the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, and invited Governments, the United Nations system, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and other relevant international and non-governmental organizations to plan and implement appropriate cultural, educational and social programmes to promote the concept of dialogue among civilizations, including through organizing conferences and seminars and disseminating information and scholarly material on the subject, and to inform me of their planned activities. The resolution also requested that I present a provisional report on activities in this regard to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session, and a final report to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. The present report is submitted in response to this request by the General Assembly. As Member States will recall, a major statement on the subject of dialogue among civilizations was delivered to the General Assembly at its fifty-third session by Seyed Mohammad Khatami, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The views of other Member States were sought in a note verbale of 15 September 1999, and are available for review.

2. The present report is provisional in nature and is intended to provide Member States with a brief outline of how I intend to respond to the invitation from the General Assembly to reflect on the idea of a dialogue among civilizations and to seek tangible ways to impact the world community. In August 1999, I appointed Giandomenico Picco as my Personal Representative for the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, to assist me in this task. Mr. Picco has already made contact with some regional groups and Governments and will continue these efforts in the future. It has been recognized that, due to the breadth of the concept of dialogue among civilizations and the lack of financial resources, any projects to be pursued would have to be extremely focused and supported by funds from outside the United Nations system.

3. The provisional report of my Personal Representative for the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations is contained in the annex.